Pinballer

My family has had season passes now for 6 consecutive years. My daughters, now 10 & 12, have faced, conquered, and are now bored with everything Valleyfair has. While we still enjoy occasionally riding almost any ride, we are all at a point where we need something big, fast, or tall to grab our attention. There are quite a few other families that we've gone and met up with over the years who are at the same place as us. The natural evolution of making Valleyfair a summer home for years and years has us all wanting to be able to enjoy the same rides that pretty much everyone else gets to. We have a merry-go-round, we have a woodie coaster, a ferris wheel, water slides, and all the classic elements of most theme parks except for an inverted coaster. Which, in the modern era, is about as typical as the ferris wheel and carousel of yesterday. We don't need a new one every couple years, and it doesn't have to hold any records for fastest, tallest or anything. I'd be fine with one that was removed from a flagship park to make room for a new one there. I'm getting really tired of being accused of "needing a new coaster ever couple years", or being told that VF is NOT a coaster-capital park when I write about my disappoint here. But whatever. I do hope Valleyfair does well. And I hope they eventually decide that Minnesotans are worthy of what they allow guests of every other Cedar Fair, Six Flags, and practically every other park has. I'd love to know what people are talking about when they describe the feeling of standing or hanging on a ride that cruises all over the park. I've never ridden an inverted coaster - like most coaster lovers out there have. I've pretty much just visited MY park in MY hometown. I'll certainly come back if that finally happens, but I've been loyal, I've waited, and now I'm done.

Then you're doing the healthy act, which is to stop going somewhere you and your family aren't enjoying. You have alternatives, and it seems you're going to use them. I just think you need to do some personal reassessment here. If the only thing that will make you happy going there is seeing new coasters built with frequency, then maybe you have to accept needing to travel to more parks outside your immediate or even close vicinity to scratch that itch? Adventureland probably isn't going to receive a new coaster for another 10 years. Mount Olympus...it's just gonna fight to stay in business the way things are going. Arnold's hasn't gotten a new-to-them coaster in 17 years, and that was more of a rental/concession situation that lasted one season. You might have those trips next summer, but then what? Alternately, maybe take your kids to the zoo or some museums. Go to Duluth. Take a train trip. But don't get angry at Cedar Fair simply because they don't make your specific park the jewel of the chain. OH PLEASE! I'm not asking to have as many big rides as other CF's other parks or requiring "new coasters with frequency"! But there is an All or Nothing problem going on at Cedar Fair. Is there no middle ground here? While other parks get a new steel coaster every couple/few years, We haven't had a full-circuit steel coaster in 20 YEARS AND COUNTING! That's ridiculous. If we go to new parks that we haven't been to hundreds of times and ride rides we're not accustomed to, it'll be a new and different experience that we'll enjoy. The coatses, the flat rides, everything. But At Valleyfair, we've done everything hundreds of times. And VF (like any other park) has to add new, exciting attractions to keep regulars like me enticed - or lose our business.

Interesting opinion on Waterpark of America. I've been to most of the INDOOR watermarks at Wisconsin Dells, and Waterpark of America is bigger than any single room park in Wisconsin Dells. OK, it's about the same size as Chula Vista. But as for the flyers coming next year in lieu of a coaster, allow me to speak for a family of four that's bought season passes for the last 6 yrs. straight. You know, the "bread & butter" / base market of a theme park. We have been going BECAUSE we have "a hyper coaster, two wood coasters (one of which is a solid GCI), a nice attached water park, a funky/rad Arrow Mine Train style coaster, and an Impulse". And we've rode them each 100 times! For the past 2 seasons we've pretty much just used the watermark and haven't hardly ridden any of the rides at all - WE'RE BORED! The new water slides are just OK, the splash pad is totally stupid (my 8 yr. old used it once), and there's just nothing super exciting to keep us coming back. Major attractions are what other parks add every couple years to keep loyalists, thrill seekers, AND GROWING FAMILIES coming back - and Valleyfair is no different. MOST of Valleyfair's coasters are "walk-on" today. There is never a line at Excalibur, Corkscrew, or High Roller - because other people feel the same as I do - YAWN! That leaves Renegade, Steel Venom (that just goes back & forth, and our flagship coaster (the only full circuit steel coaster we have): Wild Thing which is 20 years old in 2016. Our premier coaster is 20 years old (old news) and nobody even rides the other ones (Renegade being the exception). So some of you can try and put the positive spin on this reality and say that those of us who are mad aren't being fair or have no right to complain. But MY reality is that I've ponied up $1,500 in season passes over 6 years, spent countless amounts of $$ on $10 corn dogs and $15 pops, and are completely bored when we go there. No flat ride is gonna change that, and I don't think it should be unreasonable to expect that Valleyfair is run like other theme parks and has comparable amenities added on a time table consistent with other Cedar Fair parks. We clearly are being overlooked and I cannot make myself or my kids get excited over another ride that spins in a circle. We will be getting season passes to Cascade Bay next summer and making some 3 hr. trips to Adventureland, Arnold's, and the Dells. I'd much rather have had a reason to spend a 7th summer frequenting Valleyfair and still wish there was something exciting and new to look forward to - but Cedar Fair just didn't give it to us